Spicy Dill Pickles

We decided to try a second type of dill pickles in our canning adventures. A big shout out to Nest Colleen for sharing this recipe with me. They smelled so garlic and good when we were canning them that I can not wait to try them.

Look at all the yummy ingredients in there.

Ingredients
Dill pickles - medium sized
2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup water
4 teaspoons pickling salt
2 teaspoons dill seed
2 teaspoons celery seed
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 teaspoons mustard seed
2 jalapeno peppers

1. Wash pickles and pat them dry.
2. Place jars in a sink with boiling water and allow to soak for 5-10 minutes.
3. Place lids in a pot of boiling water and allow to soak for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add vinegar, water, pickling salt, dill seed, celery seed and mustard seed in a pot and bring to a boil.
5. Place pickles into the jars. Make sure they are packed in there.
6. Add 2 cloves of garlic to each jar.
7. Slice the jalapeno in half and de-seed. Add 1 to each jar.
8. Ladle the hot vinegar over the pickles.
9. Afix the hot lid onto the jar to seal.

*** note - if the lid doesn't "pop" within several hours then you did not get a proper seal and the pickles will spoil. You can tell if the jars have "popped" because you can see and feel that the lid has been pulled down tight.

My Mom's Salsa

Joe eats alot of salsa. ALOT of salsa. So part 2 of our canning day was making my mom's salsa. We bought all of our ingredients at the farmers market and got some fantastic deals because we went closer to the end of the day. We got about 100 tomatoes for $5!!

My biggest recommendation with this recipe is to make it in smaller batches. We didn't do this and well it appears that the tomatoes "ate" all the peppers that we added in. Seriously, we could not find any of them. Also the recipe turned out runnier than we would like because we were trying to cook such a massive batch. When I retry this recipe next year I will follow the below quantities and make more batches rather than one big one.

Okay and now a warning. This recipe calls for jalapeno peppers. I seeded and chopped 10 of these and while I felt fine afterwards several hours later I was in the worst pain I have ever experienced. This continued for 24 hours. The only way I could sleep was with my hands in buckets of ice water. So wear gloves when you are de-seeding the jalapeno's. There are lots of "remedies" (buttermilk, sourcream, aloe, nail polish remover, lime juice, baking soda) out there but none of them worked for me.

Ingredients
8 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
1 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons pickling salt
2 cups diced white onion
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup diced pepper (red is best but you could use any colour you want)
4 tablespoons orange juice
5 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
2 teaspoons sugar

1. Fill the sink with boiling hot water and place the tomatoes into it. Allow them to sit for 10 minutes. Remove and begin to peel off the skin with a knife.
2. Cut in half and remove the seeds.
3. Dice the tomatoes and add to a large pot.
4. Fill the sink with boiling hot water and fill each jar with hot water and place into the sink. Allow jars to sit in the sink for at least 5 minutes.
5. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the jar lids.
6. Dice the pepper, jalapeno's and onion and add to the tomatoes.
7. Chop the cilantro and add to the tomatoes.
8. Add in the vinegar, pickling salt, orange juice and sugar. Bring to a boil for 1/2 hour.
9. Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.
10. Remove a jar from the sink and ladle the hot salsa into it, filling it to the top.
11. Remove a lid from the boiling water and secure the jar shut.
12. Store in a cool place (I put ours in the basement).

My Mom's Dill Pickles

My mom came over to teach me how to can. I thought it would be simple enough but it is really a fine art. I am glad she came over as it was awesome to learn not only how to can but how to make some of her recipes that I grew up on. I look forward to canning some more and having my mom show me how to "sugar can".

Ingredients
Cucumbers - the medium size are the best
Dill weed
Mason jars with lids
Garlic, sliced (2 cloves per jar)
2 cups white vinegar
6 cups water
4 tablespoons pickling salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Wash the cucumbers well and pat dry.
2. Fill sink with boiling hot water and fill each jar with hot water and place into the sink.
3. Allow jars to sit in the sink for at least 5 minutes.
4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the jar lids.
5. Add vinegar, water, pickling salt and brown sugar to a pot and bring to a boil.
6. Remove a jar from the sink and put some dill and garlic into the bottom of it.
7. Add the pickles into the jar, making sure to pack them in tightly.
8. Add more dill to the top of the jar.
9. Ladle the hot vinegar mixture into the jar until it is completely full.
10. Remove a lid from the hot water and secure the jar closed.

This recipe made 4 jars of pickles for me but I had some medium pickles and some smaller one's so we got alot per jar. You can always make more of the vinegar mixture if you run out of it.

Store the jars in a cool place (we put ours in the basement). Pickles will be ready in about 4 weeks.